knew him through Jeremy Collier.  And the acquaintance of a man like Marcus Aurelius is such an imperishable benefit, that one can never lose a peculiar sense of obligation towards the man who confers it.  Apart from this claim upon one’s tenderness, however, Jeremy Collier’s version deserves respect for its genuine spirit and vigor, the spirit and vigor of the age of Dryden.  Jeremy Collier too, like Mr. Long, regarded in Marcus Aurelius the living moralist, and not the dead classic; and his warmth of feeling gave to his style an impetuosity and rhythm which from Mr. Long’s style (I do not blame it on that account) are absent.  Let us place the two side by side.  The impressive opening of Marcus Aurelius’s fifth book, Mr. Long translates thus:—­

“In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present:  I am rising to the work of a human being.  Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into the world?  Or have I been made for this, to lie in the bed clothes and keep myself warm?—­But this is more pleasant.—­ Dost thou exist then to take thy pleasure, and not at all for action or exertion?”

Jeremy Collier has:—­

“When you find an unwillingness to rise early in the morning, make this short speech to yourself:  ’I am getting up now to do the business of a man; and am I out of humor for going about that which I was made for, and for the sake of which I was sent into the world?  Was I then designed for nothing but to doze and batten beneath the counterpane?  I thought action had been the end of your being.’”

In another striking passage, again, Mr. Long has:—­

“No longer wonder at hazard; for neither wilt thou read thy own memoirs, nor the acts of the ancient Romans and Hellenes, and the selections from books which thou wast reserving for thy old age.  Hasten then to the end which thou hast before thee, and, throwing away idle hopes, come to thine own aid, if thou carest at all for thyself, while it is in thy power."[202]

Here his despised predecessor has:—­

“Don’t go too far in your books and overgrasp yourself.  Alas, you have no time left to peruse your diary, to read over the Greek and Roman history:  come, don’t flatter and deceive yourself; look to the main chance, to the end and design of reading, and mind life more than notion:  I say, if you have a kindness for your person, drive at the practice and help yourself, for that is in your own power.”

It seems to me that here for style and force Jeremy Collier can (to say the least) perfectly stand comparison with Mr. Long.  Jeremy Collier’s real defect as a translator is not his coarseness and vulgarity, but his imperfect acquaintance with Greek; this is a serious defect, a fatal one; it rendered a translation like Mr. Long’s necessary.  Jeremy Collier’s work will now be forgotten, and Mr. Long stands master of the field, but he may be content, at any rate, to leave his predecessor’s grave unharmed, even if he will not throw upon it, in passing, a handful of kindly earth.